tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post3724643224081812204..comments2024-01-15T05:26:06.518+00:00Comments on THOUGHTS OF XANADU: Pale Fires And Other DeceptionsKubla Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-42331578745901566762007-03-17T05:10:00.000+00:002007-03-17T05:10:00.000+00:00it makes sense. optimistic despair is a good one a...it makes sense. optimistic despair is a good one and I think this is what the sisyphus-thing is about,he onlyis happy when he walks down the mountain to fetch the rock and roll it back...*https://www.blogger.com/profile/05680450955867041830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-88933968464262404222007-03-16T21:31:00.000+00:002007-03-16T21:31:00.000+00:00wow, thats intriguing. and its a nice phrase too, ...wow, thats intriguing. and its a nice phrase too, solar pessimism!Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-7181029047681906652007-03-16T19:37:00.000+00:002007-03-16T19:37:00.000+00:00antonia, alok:I came across this idea of solar pes...antonia, alok:<BR/>I came across this idea of solar pessimism in Louis Mcneice's preface to The Outsider.<BR/>Camus valued the sun and outdoor life in Algiers, such things were close to his heart. He grew up in a working class area of Algiers, his mother worked as a char woman, he was poor.<BR/>But the sun was free...and he could share the sun with the elitist french settlers there...it was there for the taking. naturally, being poor, Camus did not have the joys of childhood that his other peers had. In his Notes, Camus writes that he was ashamed to mention that he was from Belcourt,a poor area in Algiers. his ambition, it seemed was to...'have a heart free from bitterness'.<BR/>The concept of solar pessimism thus becomes a motif for something that was his chain and liberation at the same time. at the same time, in later years, Camus the celebrity prided in belonging to this poor area....his hope in the future was offset by his despair at the existential tension, or absurd as he called it. He advocated philosophical suicide, and in his great essay The myth of sisyphus, he finally urges to carry on inspite of his disbelief in life aftre death.<BR/>solar pessimism thus will seem easier to relate to in his context, in that environment, in his absurdist philosophy. It is a chance to live, a hope to survive amongst so many other reasons to die.<BR/>solar pessimism, as I have understood it, is thus a kind of optimism.<BR/>i have been cynical about the outsider for a long time now....but Camus the foreigner is also camus the Algerian.<BR/>we can disagree with his politics, but not ignore his greatness as a novelist and a solar pessimist philosopher.<BR/>I hope i have been clear.With pale fire, i tried to relate it to the same kind of optimistic despair, as John shade grieved for his daughter, Kinbote misunderstood his optimistic facade. shade is in my opinion a solar pessimist...or am i talking of nabokov?<BR/>Please do try to find more about this solar pessimism...i havent actually tried to do any thing more about it.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-33472185237763881692007-03-16T03:28:00.000+00:002007-03-16T03:28:00.000+00:00enlighten us about the solar pessimism,kubla.enlighten us about the solar pessimism,kubla.*https://www.blogger.com/profile/05680450955867041830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-12600457137394748522007-03-16T03:27:00.000+00:002007-03-16T03:27:00.000+00:00oh I didn't know that, thanks alok for pointing th...oh I didn't know that, thanks alok for pointing that out :) great quote. I need to reread the Nabokov.*https://www.blogger.com/profile/05680450955867041830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-69624606582664937742007-03-16T02:36:00.000+00:002007-03-16T02:36:00.000+00:00hmm, what's solar pessimism?pale fire is actually ...hmm, what's solar pessimism?<BR/><BR/>pale fire is actually a shakespearean phrase for moonlight... from "Timon of Athens"<BR/><I><BR/>Do villainy, do, since you protest to do't, Like workmen. <BR/>I'll example you with thievery: <BR/>The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; <BR/>The sea's a thief, whose liquid surges resolves The moon into salt tears; <BR/>the earth's a thief, That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n From gen'ral excrement. </I><BR/><BR/>I havent read this Shakespeare though. But I like this quote very much. It also has some connection with creativity and thievery which is one of the themes of pale fire.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-58194940334225104282007-03-15T22:13:00.000+00:002007-03-15T22:13:00.000+00:00Thanks.pale fire....darkness in the fire....the su...Thanks.<BR/>pale fire....darkness in the fire....the sun is not so bright after all, inside its heart...<BR/>Have you heard of solar pessimism?<BR/>perhaps nabokov realized that even his words were just pale fire....as are all other fires that have died and are dying....Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-31122974931145156152007-03-15T21:51:00.000+00:002007-03-15T21:51:00.000+00:00interesting piece. need to think of it a bit and t...interesting piece. need to think of it a bit and then I comment on it.<BR/>I was always thinking what a wonderful title that is, 'pale fire'. How can a fire be pale...that's lovely nabokovish.*https://www.blogger.com/profile/05680450955867041830noreply@blogger.com